Wheels 2 Fields Flower Farm is a place for chickens, cats, dogs and wheelchairs.
The 3 1/2-acre farm, which is just outside the Eureka city limits, features wider paths between flowers and crops to allow wheelchairs to freely move through the field. There also is a bridge that goes over a small stream that cuts through the farmland.
Jeremiah and Kristy DeGuire modified their farm to allow Jeremiah and their youngest son, Jude, to move about the property freely.
Jeremiah, 41, has used a wheelchair since July 2006 after he fractured a vertebra when a two-story brick wall collapsed on him at a restaurant near Tower Grove Park in St. Louis.
Jude, 8, was born prematurely and has cerebral palsy. He initially used a walker with four wheels, but he can walk now with a cane.
The farm also is home to the couple’s other two children – Benjamin, 11, and Jude’s twin sister, Maria, 8 – along with a 4-year-old German shepherd, Millie, three cats named Merlin, Smokey and Shadow Moon, and 14 free-range chickens.
The couple decided their farm’s name needed to highlight the unique nature of the property.
“We wanted to communicate the fact that part of the farm is therapy for us,” Kristy, 40, said. “Everybody leads stressful lives, but we’ve had to overcome a number of hurdles. We are trying to communicate that.”
Test grounds
The farm was recently used to try out a new wheelchair and provide feedback to the Veterans Affairs Hospital in St. Louis.
Jeremiah, who served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps, received medical care at the VA facility following his accident.
Hospital officials approached him to try out the iBOT chair, which is produced by Mobius Mobility. Jeremiah said he used the chair at the hospital and the farm.
“It’s always exciting to see new technology come out,” he said.
The iBOT features four large wheels that allow the chair to climb stairs and curbs as well as perform on a variety of surfaces such as sand, snow, ice, stone and gravel. The iBOT also adjusts its seat to keep the rider level, and it can extend up to balance on its back wheels to allow the user to be eye level with people who are standing.
“It will provide access for a lot of people right now,” Jeremiah said. “With the design they have, I think it will be more for urban areas like around concrete paved areas.”
Jeremiah said he kept his test drives at the farm on gravel and grass areas because he didn’t want to get the chair stuck in mud.
He said the chair-leveling feature made for a smooth ride on uneven terrain.
“It actually levels your chair to where you’re still sitting like you’re on level ground as you’re going down a hill,” Jeremiah said. “It’s essentially just like a Segway.”
An iBOT chair costs about $31,000. Jeremiah said the VA received two chairs through a donation, but the price tag would discourage him from buying one. He also said he would need to buy a new vehicle to transport the chair.
He conceded that the specialized chair would allow him to visit more locations freely.
“I think I’ve been in one of the neighbor’s houses in the last six years,” he said. “It’s always either outside or we meet somewhere to go to dinner or something, so it would open that freedom.”
Planting seeds
Kristy has always had a green thumb, something Jeremiah knew about when they started dating in college.
“Even in college, the apartment she shared (with a roommate) had a little balcony, and it was just covered with banana trees and plants,” he said.
Kristy and Jeremiah each started their own businesses during their 16 years of marriage. Kristy opened DG2 Design Landscape Architecture, which is based in Eureka, and Jeremiah operates the Veteran Supply Warehouse, an electrical distribution company, from the couple’s home.
The farm grew out of Kristy’s love of plants.
“I have a hobby of planting, and sometimes it gets rather out of control,” she said. “We decided we’re both entrepreneurs and we could probably do something to offset my hobby.”
Kristy handles the majority of the planting at the farm, and Jeremiah is in charge of “water management.”
“It’s a polite way of saying I basically do all the labor,” Jeremiah said.
The farm is closed to the public, but the two operate the Pot Shed, 1065 Eureka Road, where customers may buy premade bouquets, pick up custom orders and buy local honey.
Kristy assembles most of the bouquets, and the shop is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.